Sheila Murphy
Phoenix, AZ
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Sheila E. Murphy's book manuscript Letters to Unfinished J. was selected in this year's open poetry competition sponsored by Sun & Moon Press, and will be published by Sun & Moon. Dennis Phillips was the judge. Falling in Love Falling in Love With You Syntax: Selected and New Poems has just been released by Potes & Poets Press. Recent works include A Clove of Gender (Stride Press, 1995). Murphy's work has been widely anthologized, most recently in Fever Dreams: Contemp orary Arizona Poetry (The University of Arizona Press, 1997) and The Gertrude Stein Awards in Contemporary Poetry (Sun & Moon Press, 1994, 1995). The Contemporary Authors Autobiography Series recently brought out an autobiography of Sheila E. Murphy, including photographs of Murphy with family and friends.
Sheila Murphy co-founded with Beverly Carver and continues to coordinate the Scottsdale Center for the Arts Poetry Series, now in its eleventh season. Murphy is President of the management consulting firm Sheila Murphy Associates. Since 1976, she has made Phoenix, Arizona, her home.
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• What do you do for a living?
I earn my living as an organizational/management consultant, specializing in program evaluation and performance enhancement strategies. I do a good deal of analytical work, both quantitative and qualitative, and I perform a great deal of public speaking, as well
• Who are your favorite artists?
Matisse, O’Keeffe, Picasso when he was painting Gertrude Stein, Turner (believe it or not), Miles Davis, Bach, Joyce, Stravinsky, Leonard Bernstein especially when he was writing his “Mass,” and at the top of all lists, Gertrude Stein
• What influences you to write about/how you do?
What I have imagined to be possible, gleaned from what I read and equally from the people I will always love.
• Where do you see the underground writing scene in 25 years?
The dividing line between under- and above-ground will have diminished. The Internet and its extensions will make everything freer and more available. There will likely be much more interdisciplinary work. It will be wonderful to see the combinations. More collaboration, freer traveling between media, and less pigeonholing than now. The “no trespassing” signs will melt. That said, I hope that freedom as we have read of it and thought we knew it will be there as we need to believe it is two decades and a half from now. Since I plan to live to 133, I plan to be, and so I will be able to report at a moderately young age still.
• from cait - including your menus for breakfast, lunch, dinner/snacks, what did you do for the past 48 hours and don’t leave out, who you were with, what/who you talked about, etc etc etc and please include the uglies and be specific with every detail…thank you very much - burp
Okay, Cait. It was a sterling kind of 48. Had oatmeal twice I think, plus lasagna, and green tea with ginger (lower case g). I pecked away at the computer, viewed some things, visited Max to be adjusted physically, found out how tight I was, had more green tea, discussed things like mad with Beverly C, prayed and slept and dreamed. Then I awoke and showered and listened to a mystery en route to where I sat all day in a session I’m evaluating, then snuck home for lunch (oatmeal again), had fun, went back, drank 23.4 ounces of water, prayed, grabbed baked potatoes and brought them home cooked, but I cooked them more with parmesan and added ghee, plus yogurt that had been stiffened overnight in the little yogurt meshing that makes yogurt like sour cream. Decided not to walk because of having told myself that I deserve to rest. So I will take it easy, antithetically enough to my aries disposition. Oh, yes, finished side 4 in the car. 4 more to go.
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